summer reading list* - lebanon€¦ · sensing the rhythm: finding my voice in a world without...
TRANSCRIPT
looks like his ticket to a better life in the big city. But his
entire future is threatened when several violent guys find
out Gabe, the popular DJ, is also Elizabeth from school. |
ALA | Lexile: 600
All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry
In the Pacific Northwest, the bond between two best
friends is challenged when a mysterious and gifted
musician comes between them and awakens an ancient
evil. | ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound |
Lexile: 820
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson In the months after her sister dies, seventeen-year-old
Lennie falls into a love triangle and discovers the
strength to follow her dream of becoming a musician. |
Lexile: 860
Tone Deaf by Olivia Rivers Ali Collins was a child piano prodigy
until a brain tumor caused her to lose her
hearing, and now, after meeting Jace, the
lead singer of Tone Deaf, her musical
and romantic possiblities increase.| ALA |
Lexile: 800
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow
Rowell Set over the course of one school year in
1986, this is the story of two star-crossed
misfits--smart enough to know that first
love almost never lasts, but brave and
desperate enough to try. | ALA, ILA |
Lexile: 580
The Scar Boys by Len Vlahos Written as a college admission essay, eighteen-year-old
Harry Jones recounts a childhood defined by the hideous
scars he hid behind, and how forming a band brought self
-confidence, friendship, and his first kiss. | ALA | Lexile:
910
The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
Sixteen-year-old San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau
once had a promising future as a concert pianist. Her
chance at a career has passed, and she decides to help her
ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own
future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the
first place. | ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound | Lexile: 610
Solo by Kwame Alexander Seventeen-year-old Blade endeavors to resolve painful
issues from his past to navigate the challenges of his
former rockstar father's addictions, scathing tabloid
rumors, and a protected secret that threatens his own
identity. | ALA | Lexile: 640
A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
A modern adaptation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth
lyrically depicts the experiences of Claire, who struggles
as a bystander when her best friend, Ella, becomes
involved with a charismatic young man at the beach. |
ALA | Lexile: 540
Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
While trying to score a date with her cute co
-worker at the Scooper Dooper, sixteen-year
-old Audrey gains unwanted fame and
celebrity status when her ex-boyfriend, a
rock musician, records a breakup song
about her that soars to the top of the
Billboard charts. | ALA | 760
Naked ‘76 by Kevin Brooks
In the summer of 1976, when punk rock is
taking over England, Lili finds herself
playing bass for a wild new band called
Naked, and struggling to sort out
complicated relationships with self-
destructive band mates. | Lexile: 960
Nick & Norah's Infinite
Playlist by Rachel Cohn High school student Nick O'Leary, member of a rock
band, meets college-bound Norah Silverberg and asks her
to be his girlfriend for five minutes in order to avoid his
ex-sweetheart. | ALA | Lexile: 940
Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by
Kristin Cronn-Mills Gabe has always identified as a boy, but he was born
with a girl's body. With his new public access radio show
gaining in popularity, Gabe struggles with romance,
friendships, and parents--all while trying to come out as
transgendered. An audition for a station in Minneapolis
FICTION
Libraries ROCK! ~ Grades 9-12
S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t *
Suggested music-themed summer reading titles compiled for the Connecticut Department of Education
by Linda Williams, Connecticut State Library
April 2018
*Many listed were selected as exemplary by one or more of the following organizations: the American Library Association (ALA), the International Literacy Association (ILA), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Association for the Advance-ment of Science (AAAS) or the United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY).
S u m m e r R e a d i n g L i s t *
BIOGRAPHY
Symphony for the City of the Dead:
Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
by M. T. Anderson
An account of the Siege of Leningrad reveals the role
played by Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich and his
Leningrad Symphony in rallying and commenorating their
fellow citizens. | ALA, NCSS | Lexile: 990
Sensing the Rhythm: Finding My Voice in a
World Without Sound by Mandy Harvey
The musician recounts her life and career, including how
she lost her hearing at age eighteen, suffered from depres-
sion, and found her way back to music.
Ready for a Brand New Beat: How
"Dancing in the Street" Became the Anthem for a
Changing America by Mark Kurlansky Traces the meteoric popu-
larity of the iconic song by
Marvin Gaye, Mickey Ste-
venson, and Ivy Jo Hunter
against a backdrop of the
Mississippi Freedom Sum-
mer of 1964, exploring
how the song's multiple
meanings rendered it an
activist anthem. | ALA Out-standing Books for the College Bound
This is Your Brain
on Music: the Sci-
ence of a Human Ob-
session by Daniel J.
Levitin Explores the relationship between the mind and music by
drawing on recent findings in the fields of neuroscience and
Janis Joplin by
Ann Angel A biography of rock
musician Janis Joplin,
with photographs and
anecdotes from those
who knew her, covering
her work to improve as a
singer, struggle atainst
authority aned love for
her mother. | ALA |
Lexile: 1170
Yoko Ono:
Collector of Skies by
Neil Beram
A lyrical introduction to the life and art of Yoko Ono covers
her avant-garde visual art and her experimental music,
exploring how she endured as the misunderstood wife of
John Lennon and sought unique creative expressions. | ALA Outstanding Books for the College Bound
This Land Was Made for You and Me by
Elizabeth Partridge A biography of Woody Guthrie, a singer who wrote
over 3,000 folk songs and ballads as he traveled around
the United States, including This Land is Your Land
and So Long It’s Been Good to Know Yuh. | ALA
Outstanding Books for the College Bound, NCSS | Lexile:
1020
Die Young With Me: A Memoir by Rob Rufus
The author describes growing up in rural West Virginia and
starting a punk band with his twin brother, only to be
diagnosed with stage four cancer, which forced him to
discover his inner strength. | ALA ALEX Award
evolutionary psychology to discuss topics such as the
sources of musical tastes and the brain's responses to music.
Children of the Stone: The Power of Music
in a Hard Land by Sandy Tolan
Chronicles the life story of Ramzi Aburedwan, a Palestinian
refugee who got an education, mastered the viola, and
founded a music school in the West Bank, showing how his
love of music helped to inspire children in a violent land.
NONFICTION
POETRY
The Rose That Grew From Concrete by
Tupac Shakur
A collection of verse by the late hip-hop star Tupac Shakur
includes more than one hundred poems confronting such
wide-ranging topics as poverty, motherhood, Van Gogh,
and Mandela. | ALA
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-
Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the
Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm
town school where the only other Indian is the school
mascot. | Lexile: 600
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a
devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year in high
school. | Lexile: 690
Feed by M. T. Anderson
In a future where most people have computer implants in
their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an
unusual girl who is in serious trouble. | Lexile: 770
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Set in the near future, America has become a puritanical
theocracy and Offred tells her story as a Handmaid under
the new social order. | Lexile: 750
Squashed by Joan Bauer
As sixteen-year-old Ellie pursues her two goals--growing
the biggest pumpkin in Iowa and losing twenty pounds
herself--she strengthens her relationship with her father
and meets a young man with interests similar to her own. |
Lexile: 930
Love in the Time of Global Warming
by Francesca Lia Block
After a devastating earthquake destroys the West Coast,
causing seventeen-year-old Penelope to lose her home, her
parents, and her ten-year-old brother, she navigates a dark
world, holding hope and love in her hands and refusing to
be defeated. | Lexile: 890
Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
Follows the wild adventures of Weetzie Bat and her Los
Angeles friends, Dirk, Duck, and My-Secret-Agent-Lover-
Man. | Lexile: 960
Kindred by Octavia Butler
A young African-American woman is mysteriously
transferred back in time leading to an irresistible curiosity
about her family's past. | Lexile: 580
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Young Ender Wiggin may prove to be the military genius
Earth needs to fight a desperate battle against a deadly
S u m m e r R e a d i n g
Favorites & Classics For Grades 9-12
alien race that will determine the future of the human race.
| Lexile: 780
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by
Stephen Chbosky
A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the
coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie. |
Lexile: 720
Girl Overboard by Justina Chen
After a snowboarding accident, Syrah Cheng, a
billionaire's daughter, must rehabilitate both her knee and
her self-esteem while forging relationships with those who
accept her for who she is. | Lexile: 960
The House on Mango Street by Sandra
Cisneros
A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago
ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her
environment and evaluates her relationships with family
and friends. | Lexile: 850
Just Listen by Sara Dessen
Isolated from friends who believe the worst because she
has not been truthful with them, sixteen-year-old Annabel
finds an ally in classmate Owen, whose honesty and
passion for music help her to face and share what really
happened at the end-of-the-year party that changed her life.
| Lexile: 810
Copper Sun by Sharon M. Draper
Two fifteen-year-old girls--one a slave and the other an
indentured servant--escape their Carolina plantation and
try to make their way to Fort Moses, Florida, a Spanish
colony that gives sanctuary to slaves. | Lexile: 820
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by
Jonathan Safran Foer
Follows nine-year-old Oskar Schell as he encounters a
number of interesting characters in his search for
information about his father, who died in the World Trade
Center on September 11, 2001, and tries to find the lock
that fits the mysterious key he left behind. | Lexile: 940
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient,
has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting
with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine
her perspective on love, loss, and life. | Lexile: 850
April 2015
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the
Nighttime by Mark Haddon
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people,
Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-
old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's
dog and uncovers secret information about his mother. |
Lexile: 1180
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy
truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina,
whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her
own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while
she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary
musical talents. | Lexile: 760
Game by Walter Dean Myers
If Harlem high school senior Drew Lawson is going to
realize his dream of playing college, then professional,
basketball, he will have to improve at being coached and
being a team player, especially after a new--white--student
threatens to take the scouts' attention away from him. |
Lexile: 800
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-
old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in
the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come
to terms with the course his life has taken. | Lexile: 670
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi Contains black-and-white comic strip images in which the
author shares the story of her life in Tehran, Iran, where she
lived from ages six to fourteen while the country came
under control of the Islamic regime. | Lexile: 380
SERIES
Weetzie Bat series by Francesca Lia Block
Finishing School series by Gail Carriger
The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner series by James Dashner
The Rangers Apprentice series Flanagan
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island
inhabited--throughout various time periods--by Vikings,
vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant. | Lexile:
770
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Young Francie Nolan, having inherited both her father's
romantic and her mother's practical nature, struggles to
survive and thrive growing up in the slums of Brooklyn in
the early twentieth century. | Lexile: 810
Buried Onions by Gary Soto
When nineteen-year-old Eddie drops out of college, he
struggles to find a place for himself as a Mexican American
living in a violence-infested neighborhood of Fresno,
California. | Lexile: 850
Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X.
Stork
Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-
functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new
challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes
to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law
firm. | Lexile: 700
Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia
The lives of Leticia, Dominique, and Trina are irrevocably
intertwined through the course of one day in an urban high
school after Leticia overhears Dominique's plans to beat up
Trina and must decide whether or not to get involved. |
Lexile: 600
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in
grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly
nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to
adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they
had anticipated. | Lexile: 710
Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin
Life as We Knew It series by Susan Beth Pfeffer
His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman
The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater
Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Laini
S u m m e r R e a d i n g
Favorites & Classics For Grades 9-12